10.8. Homemade Backgrounds If you do much work with knockouts, chances are you will need some eye- catching backgrounds for them. Of course, many applications for knockouts, such as catalog advertising, require a whiteor at least, solid colorbackground so that there will be as little interference as possible with the surrounding advertising copy. On the other hand, I've done whole fashion shoots knowing that there simply wasn't the budget for either location shooting or fancy backgrounds. Anytime I'm out scouting around with my camera, I'm looking for backgrounds for realistic situations, but sometimes you just want an eye- catching look. Sometimes you want to suggest an atmosphere that doesn't really exist. I don't know if anybody would buy it, but you could write a whole book on the possibilities for creating your own backgrounds. One way is to use a lighting mask like the one I described above and create interesting shapes to cast highlights and shadows on a solid color background by using a masked adjustment layer. In this instance, I used shapes from the Animals collection provided in Photoshop. Shadows were created by inverting the original layer and then changing its mode to Multiply and then reducing the opacity of the layer. You can see the result in Figure 10-21. Figure 10-21. These shapes were used to create a lighting effect. On the right, you see it applied to a solid color background. Of course, it could be applied to a background of any color or texture, even a photograph. 10.8.1. Using Pattern Maker Pattern Maker makes a whole layer of a seamless texture from a selection you made from another layer or photograph. It's a good way to make a background for an image whose natural background was too complex. Because this new background is taken from the original background, the color balance and exposure of the background are much more likely to match. Be sure to make a merged layer of your entire image before you run this process. You will select the pattern area from this merged layer. The following process is typical of the process for this making a new background for an object knocked out of the same photo that the background pattern is derived from. Figure 10-22 shows an example of the before and after of this effect. Figure 10-22. The original image is on the left. Although it's a stronger image as it stands, the jacket that was being sold in the ad was getting too much competition. Furthermore, there wasn't room for type. 1. Open the image for which you want to create a new background. Create a new layer, which is merged from all your existing layers that becomes the top layer. 2. Knockout the portion of the image you want to make the new background for. 3. Use the Rectangular Marquee to select a portion of the original image to make a good background pattern; areas of the image that are textured, such as stone walls or hedges, are usually the best candidates. On the other hand, there's no harm in experimenting if you have the time. Anyway, when you've chosen the area you want, press Cmd/Ctrl-C to copy its contents to the Clipboard. 4. Create a new transparent layer immediately above the Merged Composite layer. Now select that layer in the Layers palette. Name the layer Pattern Maker Bkg. 5. Choose Filter Pattern Maker. The Pattern Maker dialog will open (see Figure 10-23). There will be nothing in the preview window yet, but when you're done, it will fill with the pattern you've made. Figure 10-23. The Pattern Maker dialog. 6. Click to check the Use Clipboard as Sample box. Set the Width and Height just slightly smaller than your marquee. You may have to open the Get Info palette to see what the Marquee size was and then translate inches to pixels. Alternatively, you could just make a good guess, however if you set the size larger than the sample, you'll get a seam in your pattern. Choose 3 from the Smoothness menu. This determines how much "wraparound" you get on the edges of the selection so that it will be harder to spot the seams between the tiles in the pattern. Experiment with the Sample Details slider setting. 7. Click the Generate button to see what your settings will produce. You'll quickly see the result. If you don't like it, try a different original selection or different settings, or try different Offsets. When you like what you see after pressing the Generate button, click OK. You'll see your original image with the knockout floating above the new background. The subject was leaning against a wall, so I transformed the background so that the texture projects out toward the viewer. I also create a shadow for the knockout and used a Lighting effect on the back wall. 10.9. Colorization Effects There are about a million different ways to add cool color effects to your images, whether those images are black and white, color, or effects processed. Actually, I've never had time to count the ways, but you can divide them into two major techniques: Layer Blend Modes and Brush-on Blend Modes. I'm sure that a little imagination on your part will give you ideas on how to modify and combine these into many other different looks. Traditional toning techniques, such as sepia and duotone are covered later in this chapter. The three techniques discussed here are: Hand-coloring or tinting Color Layer overlays Pattern overlays Once again, as is typical in this chapter, you should start by copying all your layers and merging them into one. We'll apply these effects to that merged layer or its derivatives to keep the original state of your image intact. 10.9.1. Hand-Coloring or Tinting This is done in traditional photography by chemically sepia-toning a print that's been made intentionally less contrasty than usual because the application of colors tends to give us a darker impression of that image. In case you can't already guess, I'm going to show you the Photoshop equivalent of how to do that same thing. These same techniques can be applied to many different types and looks of images. You could, for instance, use a cross-processed effect (see the "Cross Processing" section later in this chapter) and then intentionally add to the somewhat bizarre look by painting with the brush in any of the Blend Modes. Anyway, back to reality. In the tradition of this book, Figure 10-24 shows you a standard black and white interpretation of an image and the result of sepia toning and hand-tinting it. To hand-color an image: Figure 10-24. One of the advantages of hand tinting is that you can make anything any color you like. There's also a mood of surrealism or fantasy. 1. Merge and Duplicate your channels according to the routine in the "Organizing Your Layers to Apply Effects" section at the beginning of this chapter. 2. From the Layer palette, choose a Channel Mixer adjustment layer. When the Channel Mixer dialog appears, click to check the Monochrome box. Then use the sliders to get the tonal mix you want. 3. Now you want to lower the contrast just slightly, so that the upcoming sepia tone won't mix too strongly with the colors. From the Layers palette, choose a Curves adjustment layer. Click to place a dot in the lower portion of the curve diagonal and then press the up arrow keys several times until the shadows are as light as you'd like them to be. You can see the image and the curve I used for it in Figure 10-25. Figure 10-25. You may want to adjust the tones in the monochrome interpretation of the file with a Curves adjustment layer. 4. Select the merged layer and the two adjustment layers you just created and make a new merged copy of that layer at the top of the stack by pressing Cmd/Ctrl-Opt/Alt-E. This is the layer you're going to sepia tone. 5. Choose Image Adjustments Photo Filter. The Photo Filter dialog, seen in Figure 10-26, appears. From the Filter menu, choose Sepia. If you check the Preview button and drag the Density slider, you can watch the image until it attains the density you want. When you're there, click OK. Figure 10-26. As you can see, the Density slider was moved up to create the level of sepia color that you see in this image. NOTE This filter can be used to tone your image in any color of the rainbow. Click the Color radio button and then the Color Swatch. Use the Color Picker to pick any color or shade you like. The rest of the procedure is the same as described here. 6. Choose Image Duplicate and then zoom out so that the image becomes small enough to keep to one side. You're going to use this image to pick up colors that you want to take from real life. You'll also want to choose Window Swatches so that you can keep the Swatches palette handy for quickly picking color. 7. Choose the Brush tool. In its Options bar, choose Color from the Blend menu. Of course, if you want to see some really interesting and bizarre effects, you could choose some of the other modes. What the heck, it's your picture and your time, right? 8. Choose the colors that are appropriate for a particular area of the photo and paint them in. You'll have a much easier time of it if you have a pressure- sensitive pad, such as the Wacom Graphire. Don't be afraid to take liberties to gain effect. NOTE If you create a new Burn and Dodge layer (neutral gray fill in Overlay mode) above your image, you will have an easier time lightening and darkening areas of the image as you try putting in the colors. 10.9.2. Color Layer Overlays Some of the most delicious effects can be created simply by placing colors on an empty layer and then using Blend Modes to have them affect the original layer. If you're interested in photographic illustration, seriously consider the possibilities in this one effect. The illustration in Figure 10-27 shows one simple technique that can be used with myriad variations. Figure 10-27. The original image is on the left. On the right, the two colors of brush strokes were made on a transparent layer, blended with the Gaussian Blur filter, and the layer was placed in Hue Blend Mode. Here's how the image you see on the right in Figure 10-27 was created from the original you see on the left: 1. I clicked the New Layer icon in the Layers palette to make a new layer above the original. (If it took several layers to make your original, make a composite layer and start from there.) 2. I made a fairly large brush and selected foreground and background colors that I felt could convey the feeling of an imaginary sunrise or sunset. I made a shape I liked of the first color, then switched the colors (press X) and filled the empty area with the Paint Bucket tool. I could also have filled with a gradient for a somewhat different effect. 3. I choose Filter Blur Gaussian Blur and cranked the slider all the way to the right, then clicked OK. As you can see, this made the two colors blend smoothly over a wide area. 4. All that remained was to pick the right blending mode. That choice is rarely the same for any two layers, given the difference in the color and content of the two layers. In this case, the mode I chose was Hue. 5. I was really happy with the result, but couldn't stop experimenting. So I made another copy of the original layer. Then I used Select Select Color to select all the blue in the sky and deleted it. I then chose Outer Glow from the Layer Effects menu and also experimented with some of the other sliders in the resulting dialog in Figure 10-28. Figure 10-28. These are the settings I used for the Outer Glow Layer Style used on the layer that contained the silhouette of the branches. NOTE Nik Color Efex is a third -party filter that will automatically create hundreds of color effects that you can use with your images. This software comes with some Wacom tablets, but they can be purchased separately as well. If you want to check it out for yourself, download a free trial copy fromwww.niksoftware.com. . doesn't really exist. I don't know if anybody would buy it, but you could write a whole book on the possibilities for creating your own backgrounds. One way is to use a lighting mask. techniques: Layer Blend Modes and Brush-on Blend Modes. I'm sure that a little imagination on your part will give you ideas on how to modify and combine these into many other different looks. Traditional. painting with the brush in any of the Blend Modes. Anyway, back to reality. In the tradition of this book, Figure 10-24 shows you a standard black and white interpretation of an image and the result